Following our initial roundtable on entrepreneurship, which attracted lots of interesting and detailed feedback, we’re very happy to announce our second topic for discussion:

International Women’s Day took places on Thursday 8 March 2018 and with it comes a huge number of initiatives and opportunities for women with the aim of equality across the sector. We want to explore these initiatives and start to develop solutions on how to diversify the administrative structure of the classical music industry to include more minorities.

As part of this discussion we want to find out how to target, engage, and support minorities (including those from BAME backgrounds, low socio-economic backgrounds, those with disabilities, women, and more).

Questions to be answered:

How can women in the industry help to diversify the sector even more, helping and supporting other minority groups?

What can “woke” male-led companies do to bring in a more diverse workforce?

Where does the lack of diversity in the classical music industry start? Is it in the classroom? How can we remedy that?

Rather than discussing the problem, we want to find the solutions.

A huge thank you to our client, the Royal Over-Seas League, for hosting us in one of their beautiful rooms in London. Why not check out ROSL’s Annual Music Competition on Tuesday? Details here.

Also we’re very grateful to Idagio for hosting us in Berlin. We’re sure that you know them already but if you’ve somehow missed this impressive, sleek streaming platform, check them out here.

The AMC is the centrepiece of ROSL Arts’ year-round programme of music, art and literary events. Offering upwards of £75,000 in grants and awards, the AMC is widely-regarded in industry circles for its prestige and heritage. Recent winners of the Gold Medal include guitarist Sean Shibe, baritone Jonathan McGovern and saxophonist Huw Wiggin, each having gone on to achieve outstanding success in the early stages of their career.

Winners are offered life-changing performing opportunities after the competition, including bookings at the likes of Wigmore Hall and British music festivals. Past winners have benefited from concerts organised in countries including Singapore, Canada, Australia and Zimbabwe.

Founded in 1910 as the ‘Over-Seas Club’, ROSL aimed to unite a ‘far-flung brotherhood of individual men and women of diverse creed and races living widely apart under differing conditions, in different latitudes’ (Sir Evelyn Wrench). ROSL continues to champion international friendship and cultural understanding throughout the Commonwealth and beyond. A non-profit private members’ club, the Grade I listed clubhouse hosts regular music and arts events and offers under-35s a heavily discounted membership fee and networking opportunities.

A full list of section finals, and details of winners so far, is below: